# ema
## English
### Etymology

From Japanese 絵馬 (ema).

### Noun

ema (plural ema)
* A wooden plaque bearing a prayer or wish, left hanging at a Shinto shrine.

### See also

* ema datshi (etymologically unrelated)

### Anagrams

* AME, AmE, EAM, Mae, eam

## Catalan
### Alternative forms

* eme (Valencia)

### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central, Balearic) [ˈe.mə]
* IPA: (Valencia) [ˈe.ma]

### Noun

ema f (plural emes)
* The name of the Latin-script letter M/m.

### Further reading

* “ema” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
* “ema”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
* “ema” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
* “ema” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

## Esperanto
### Etymology

Back-formation from -ema.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [ˈema]
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -ema
* Hyphenation: e‧ma

### Adjective

ema (accusative singular eman, plural emaj, accusative plural emajn)
* tending to

#### Derived terms

* emi
* emo

## Estonian
### Etymology

From Proto-Finnic *emä, from Proto-Uralic *emä. Cognate to Hungarian eme, Livonian jemā, Finnish emä.

### Noun

ema (genitive ema, partitive ema)
* mother
* a reproductive female animal in a hive; a queen

#### Derived terms

* emakeel
* emaplaat

### Further reading

* “ema”, in [PSV] Eesti keele põhisõnavara sõnastik [Dictionary of Estonian Basic Vocabulary] (in Estonian) (online version, not updated), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2014

## Japanese
### Romanization

ema
* Rōmaji transcription of えま

## Northern Sotho
### Etymology

From Proto-Bantu *-jɪ́ma.

### Verb

ema
* to stand

## Pali
### Alternative forms

* 𑀏𑀫 (Brahmi script)
* एम (Devanagari script)
* এম (Bengali script)
* එම (Sinhalese script)
* ဧမ or ဨမ or ဢေမ (Burmese script)
* เอม or เอมะ (Thai script)
* ᩑᨾ (Tai Tham script)
* ເອມ or ເອມະ (Lao script)
* ឯម (Khmer script)
* 𑄃𑄬𑄟 (Chakma script)

### Verb

ema
* first-person plural present/imperative active of eti (“to come”)

## Portuguese
### Etymology

Possibly from Arabic, or a pronunciation of an indigenous name for the bird. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

### Pronunciation

* (Brazil) IPA: /ˈẽ.mɐ/
* (Brazil) IPA: /ˈẽ.mɐ/
** (Southern Brazil) IPA: /ˈe.ma/
* (Portugal) IPA: /ˈe.mɐ/
* Rhymes: -emɐ
* Hyphenation: e‧ma

### Noun

ema f (plural emas)
* rhea bird

#### Descendants

The word for "emu" has spread into many languages as a wanderword.
* → Catalan: emú
* → English: emu, emeu (obsolete)
** → Japanese: エミュー
** → Polish: emu
* → French: émeu
* → Greek: εμού (emoú)
* → Russian: э́му (ému)
** → Kazakh: эму (ému)
* → Spanish: emú

## Sotho
### Etymology

From Proto-Bantu *-jɪ́ma.

### Verb

ema
* to stand

## Swahili
### Etymology

From Proto-Bantu [Term?].

### Pronunciation

* Audio (Kenya):(file)

### Adjective

-ema (declinable)
* good; having intrinsic value (e.g. decent (of a person) or healthy (of food))

#### See also

* -zuri

## Tetum
### Noun

ema
* person
* people

## Tswana
### Etymology

From Proto-Bantu *-jɪ́ma.

### Verb

ema
* to stand

## Ye'kwana
### Pronunciation

* IPA: [ema]

### Verb

ema (transitive)
* to kill
* to lose
* to throw

#### Derived terms

* ema'jo
* ööma

### References

* Cáceres, Natalia (2011) “ema”, in Grammaire Fonctionnelle-Typologique du Ye’kwana‎, Lyon
* Hall, Katherine Lee (1988) The morphosyntax of discourse in De'kwana Carib, volumes I and II, Saint Louis, Missouri: PhD Thesis, Washington University, pages 138, 217, 221, 315, 389: “e-ma:-dü / to kill […] [nema:ṭo] 'they kill him/it' […] [ke:mạ:to] ~ [qe:mạ:to] 'we kill him' […] -ema- 'kill' […] ema:dü - to kill”
* Hall, Katherine (2007) “aminɲaʔkadɨ”, in Mary Ritchie Key & Bernard Comrie, editors, The Intercontinental Dictionary Series‎, Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, published 2021: “ema-dɨ”

## Zou
### Etymology

The first part (e-) from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ʔa. Cognates include Khumi Chin äni.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ə˧.ma˧˩/

### Pronoun

emà
* he, she

### References

* Lukram Himmat Singh (2013) A Descriptive Grammar of Zou, Canchipur: Manipur University, page 65